


Talk Less

by The3rdTrumpeteer



Category: Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: Episode: s02e05 Deathstroke, Violence, bit of an expansion/what-if of a scene, dick's name is there bc he's mentioned, i hurt jason more i'm sorry, takes place when deathstroke calls the titans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:13:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25794190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The3rdTrumpeteer/pseuds/The3rdTrumpeteer
Summary: All his life, people have told (warned) Jason to keep his mouth shut. Maybe he should have listened.---A short expansion/slight AU of a scene in 2x05. Slight spoilers for that episode.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 59





	Talk Less

Jason has always had trouble keeping his mouth shut. Growing up on the streets can do that to a person; either you get loud and learn to defend yourself, or you stay quiet and no one even realizes you’ve gone missing until it’s far too late.

Now, tied to a chair with a stab wound in his thigh and throbbing bruises on his face, listening to notorious assassin Slade Wilson converse with the people Jason hopes (prays) will come to save him, he almost ( _almost_ ) wishes he _had_ kept his mouth shut, just this once.

His ears are still ringing from Deathstroke’s last blows to his temple. He tries to speak again (to mouth off? He’s actually not sure yet; he hasn’t thought that far ahead), but a heavy hand suddenly closes around his throat and squeezes, cutting off his air and smothering his words. Jason can’t deflect, can’t pull away. All he can do is choke while the assassin threatens the Titans (with Jason’s death, he notes, almost absentmindedly) over speakerphone.

It’s difficult to focus on anything besides the hand crushing his trachea and the sense of impending doom, but Jason still catches a bit of Wilson’s next words.

“...want him back, hand over Rose.”

Dick’s words are too soft to hear over the roaring of blood in Jason’s ears. Just as he is sure his head is going to burst from the pressure, the hand suddenly disappears, and he coughs and sputters, struggling to pull in enough air. His battered throat pulses with pain with each ragged breath. 

He hears Deathstroke list a time and place (for the ‘prisoner exchange’, he assumes) and snap the burner phone shut, and a moment later, something slides back over Jason’s ears (the noise-cancelling headphones, he decides, given that he can no longer hear Deathstroke’s quiet breathing). For a few seconds, Jason allows himself to be alone with his thoughts and the white noise the headphones cause as they reverberate the sound of the blood rushing in his ears.

And then he decides to do something that he thinks (no, knows) he will soon regret. 

“Hey, Deathstroke, kind of a shitty thing to do, huh? What kind of asshole tries to kill his own daughter?” Jason waits a moment, but nothing happens, so he continues. “I mean, she didn’t say much about it, but it wasn’t that hard to figure out who she was running from. Only a bastard as fucked up as you could cut out his kid’s eye. Are you really surprised she’s hiding from you?”

Still nothing. Jason isn’t stupid; he knows this is a bad plan, but it’s the only one he has at the moment, and he doesn’t really feel like waiting to be rescued (if the Titans even come).

“C’mon, Wilson, nothin’ to say? You and Doctor Light on the same dumb wavelength, huh? Just two assholes with four brain cells between ya. One asshole who’s nothin’ but a glorified lightning rod, and one who thinks he can actually trick Rose into-”

A fist slams into Jason’s face so hard he thinks he actually feels some of his teeth crack, and he stifles a groan. He can hear Deathstroke's breathing again (heavier now), and he realizes the blow knocked the headphones clean off his head.

Jason doesn’t waste a second; he brings a knee straight up in an attempt to hit Deathstroke and is immediately rewarded with a pained grunt. He kicks out with his foot and lands a blow on what he thinks is the assassin’s stomach, hard and padded with armor as it is. Another grunt, and Jason kicks out again. If he can just keep Deathstroke off his guard until he can pop his hands out of the tape binding them behind his back-

Deathstroke catches his ankle. Jason doesn’t even have time to pull his leg back before there’s a _crack!_ and his ankle explodes into what feels like a thousand pieces.

Jason screams, but Deathstroke doesn’t let go. Instead, he grasps Jason’s broken ankle more tightly and twists. Jason grits his teeth, glad the blindfold is hiding the tears he feels welling up in his eyes. He can hear the scraping of metal against metal. He thinks Deathstroke might have pulled his sword out of its sheath.

“N-no,” he mutters before he can stop himself. There’s a sudden sharp pain on his cheek, and actual light collides with the stars in his vision. Jason squints and sees the blindfold hanging off the tip of Deathstroke’s sword. He can see specks of blood on it.

The assassin regards Jason for a moment (at least Jason thinks he does; his eyes are blank, expressionless, behind his mask).

“I want you to see what I’m about to do, sidekick.” Deathstroke’s voice is soft and deadly calm. “Let this be a lesson.”

He brings the pommel of his blade down on Jason’s shin.

Something snaps. Jason screams again. He can do nothing about the darkness rapidly clouding his vision, but he’s glad when it finally pulls him under, because he can’t feel the pain in the black.

**Author's Note:**

> hi this is called "rachel watched the entire second season of titans in two days and decided to hurt jason some more"  
> sorry jason.


End file.
